JOHANNUS (JOHN) LUIFE (8704) is the SUPPOSED son of JOHANNUS (JOHN) LUIFE

IMPORTANT NOTICE

      There is no written proof of this father - son relationship. We are now into an extremely difficult era for research . It is before the churches were keeping any registers of baptisms and marriages. It is before any Testaments (Wills) of an ordinary citizen. It is before any Town Council records in this area of Scotland.

     There are Court Records of Session but these usually concern the "Landed Gentry" who controlled all the land and the Burghs. Once in awhile an ordinary citizen such as a tenant farmer is mentioned for some reason. This will usually tell where a person lived but hardly ever will it give a clue as to a family relationship.

      There are the Charters granted by the King for various reasons but here again they usually are dealing with the Burghs and the Earls and Barons.

      Finally there are the Historians. There were plenty of those in Scotland in the 18th and 19th centuries. Unfortunately they also devoted most of their books to the famous families. I guess this is natural and there were sources for information for their research.

    We are extremely lucky however that our ancestors came from Renfrewshire and the Monastery of Paisley owned ALL this part of the country. The whole history of the Monastery will be told in the biographical notes for JOHANNI LUF. For now it is enough to know that most of our information has come from the Rental Rolls of the Monastery of Paisley who started to keep their records in 1460.

      This JOHANNIS LUIFE is a particularly mysterious supposed ancestor. We only have 1 specific mention of him. He is shown as being a Tenant in Govan in the Barony of Glasgow in 1527. Govan is on the south side of the River Clyde at Glasgow. Of course it long since has been swallowed up by Glasgow and is now shown as one of their suburbs. The population of Glasgow at this It atime was only about 4500 men, women and children.

    It appears JOHANNIS LUIFE arrived in Govan from Lochwinnoch Parish and his father was JOHANNI LUF who had been leasing land from the Monastery in several locations in Lochwinnoch Parish since circa 1500. There is one other tiny bit of evidence which connects JOHANNIS LUIFE to that area. In 1586 in a "Security Paper" it shows that ROBERT LUFE, the younger of Corselet, Kilbarchan Parish, was married to MARGARET LUIFE, daughter of ROBERT LUIFE, of Govan. This ROBERT LUIFE was the son of JOHANNIS LUIFE of Govan.

      You may wonder why I pursue the ancestral trail further back when most of the connections have to be made on the theory of "probability" and "possibility". I am proceeding on the theory that if I don't have the exact person correct it will be some very close relation such as a brother and in the end will go back to a common ancestor. It will also be in the correct local area and this gives the chance to discuss the history of the time and the living conditions of our ancestors.

      JOHANNIS LUIFE had at least 3 sons. JHONE LUIFE born about 1540 and probably named after the grandfather as was the custom for the first son. JAMES LUIFE, born about 1546 and ROBERT LUIFE, born about 1550. There certainly could have been daughters but no mention of them in the Rental Rolls. Also wives are not mentioned unless the husband dies and the wife takes over the lease when the eldest son is underage.

      There is no mention of the trade of JOHANNIS LUIFE. Being in a small suburb of Glasgow he was probably not a farmer but it is certainly possible. I speculate he was a Skinner (Tanner). There are several reasons for this. The earliest mention of a LUIFE in Glasgow itself is WALTER LUIFE who was one of the 11 founding members of the Skinner's Guild in 1516. I believe he was a brother of JOHANNIS LUIFE. Also his son JHONE LUIFE was a Deacon of the Skinner's Guild by 1565.

      When Carole and I were staying near Bridge of Weir, Kilbarchan Parish, in June 2000 we discovered it had been famous as a leather tanning centre for 200 years and was still one of the largest leather tanning operations in Scotland. I dug into the history of the area and discovered the first actual business was established in the area 200 years ago because there were individuals in the area who had been doing leather tanning on a small scale but were experienced in the profession.

     The above led to the strong possibility that LUIFES were involved in leather tanning in Lochwinnoch or Kilbarchan Parishes and then moved up to Govan and Glasgow already experienced in the trade.

      When William DeLoss Love was researching in Scotland in 1888, he visited the Loves in the Lochwinnoch area. He came away with the definite idea the LUIFES in Glasgow had originated from the Lochwinnoch area early in the 16th century. Everything I have come across bears this out. I also had more information available to me than he did as he never found the Rental Rolls of the Monastery of Paisley which have given me so much specific information.

      It would appear JOHANNIS LUIFE died in Govan, Lanarkshire County circa 1564.

            SOURCE INFORMATION

     HISTORY OF THE SKINNERS FURRIERS AND GLOVERS GUILD OF GLASGOW. by Harry Lumsden LLB, LLD Published in 1937. This book is in my library.

     MONASTERY OF PAISLEY RENTAL ROLLS. These are shown complete in the appendix of the book ABBEY OF PAISLEY by Rev. J. Cameron Lees DD. This book is in my library.

     Children of JOHANNUS (JOHN)³ LUIFE (8704) all born Govan, Lanarkshire, Scotland include:

               + 11.        i.    JHONE (JOHN)⁴ LUIFE (8426) JHONE (8426) was born circa 1540. He married MARGARET PUDZEANE (8427) , daughter of JOHN PADYNE , the elder (8450), circa 1564 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland. JHONE (8426) died before 13 August 1595 at an unknown age.

                     12.        ii.    JAMES LUIFE (8715). JAMES (8715) was born circa 1546. JAMES (8715) died at an unknown date at an unknown age.

               + 13.      iii.    ROBERT LUIFE (8714) ROBERT (8714) was born circa 1550. He married MARGARET LUIFE (119433) , daughter of ROBERT LUIFE (119444), in 1576 in Lanarkshire, Scotland.

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